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This story is a perfect example of the dangers excessive gambling can cause.  If a foreign intelligence agent knew of his gambling problem they may have attempted to try and offer him money for secrets to feed his gambling problem.  It is just amazing that a three-star admiral would allow himself to have such a gambling addiction that would lead to criminal conduct and make himself such a security threat:

The admiral fired last year as No. 2 commander of U.S. nuclear forces may have made his own counterfeit $500 poker chips with paint and stickers to feed a gambling habit  that eventually saw him banned from an entire network of casinos, according to a criminal investigative report.

Although Rear Adm. Timothy M. Giardina’s removal as deputy head of U.S. Strategic Command was announced last year, evidence of his possible role in manufacturing the counterfeit chips has not previously been revealed. Investigators said they found his DNA on the underside of an adhesive sticker used to alter genuine $1 poker chips to make them look like $500 chips.

Nor had the Navy disclosed how extensively he gambled.

The case is among numerous embarrassing setbacks for the nuclear force. Disciplinary problems, security flaws, weak morale and leadership lapses documented by The Associated Press over the past two years prompted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Nov. 14 to announce top-to-bottom changes in how the nuclear force is managed that will cost up to $10 billion.

The records obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act show Giardina was a habitual poker player, spending a total of 1,096 hours — or an average of 15 hours per week — at the tables at the Horseshoe casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the 18 months before being caught using three phony chips in June 2013. [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

I thought maybe that former North Korean detainee Matthew Miller had some mental issues to explain his odd detention in North Korea, but after reading this great NK News interview with him it turns out he is just an idiot:

It’s a story that begins with North Korea trying to refuse to imprison him, and ends with him going home on the personal airplane of America’s top spy.

It’s clearly more than an average vacation, yet this is exactly what 25-year-old Matthew Miller – the Bakersfield, California citizen who had his release from North Korea secured last Saturday by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper – has just experienced.

Enduring 210 days held prisoner by Pyongyang, Miller’s tale – now revealed exclusively by NK News – shows more signs of being an extreme vacation causing a major headache for Washington than the “six years of hard labor” North Korean state media called it when he was sentenced in September.

Despite fears in Washington about Miller’s attempt to claim “political asylum” during a tourist trip to North Korea this April, an interview with NK News shows that, far from being arrested upon entry, it took considerable effort for the curious American to get entangled in the DPRK legal system.

During his nearly six months in custody, Matthew Miller said he wanted to find out what North Korea was like beyond the tourist trail, something it seems he was successful in discovering.

“This might sound strange, but I was prepared for the ‘torture’ but instead of that I was killed with kindness, and with that my mind folded and the plan fell apart,” Miller told NK News this week from California.

“I sincerely apologized to North Korea, it was not coerced at all,” Miller said of his court statement to DPRK legal authorities.

“Before going I did not think I would feel guilt for my actions toward North Korea. Over time that changed and I did feel guilt for the crime, so in that sense I consider what I did to be a mistake even though I did achieve (my) goals.”  [NK News]

I recommend reading the whole interview at the link, but even the North Koreans saw that this guy was an idiot and were eager to get rid of him. It just makes me wonder if idiots like this should be charged with a crime for basically wasting everyone’s time, even the North Koreans with his stupidity? Or charge him for the cost of using the airplane to fly him out of North Korea?

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

This first McDonald’s franchise is currently being constructed in Dongducheon.  You can read more about it over at Korea Noodles.

Kim Kyong-hui (inside the red circle), the aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is shown on state television on Oct. 12, 2014, reinforcing views that she hasn’t been removed from the country’s power elite despite the execution of her once powerful husband, Jang Song-thaek. (Yonhap)

This photo released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Oct. 8, 2014, shows an officer of the Dongmyeong Unit, a South Korean military contingent serving as U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, teaching the Korean alphabet Hangeul to Lebanese college students. The unit will receive the prime minister’s award on Hangeul Day, which falls on Oct. 9. (Photo courtesy of JCS) (Yonhap)

Via a reader tip comes this story about a man in Korea trying to commit insurance fraud by running at a car and bashing his head into the windshield.  Unfortunately for him the driver had a dashcam installed:

When he reaches the car, he leaps onto the hood in a superhero-esque dive and bashes his head into the windscreen.

The glass smashes and the man collapses onto the road.

It appears the opportunist was attempting to get some sort of payout for his efforts, earning him the label of an ‘insurance scammer’ in the video description.

The bizarre act was caught on a video camera mounted on the dashboard of the car.

Insurance fraud is a growing problem in South Korea. According to a recent study from the Insurance Research Centre, an average of 156 people are caught in car insurance fraud schemes in South Korea every day, with the amount of money involved totalling KRW1.18 trillion (AU$1.8 billion) over the last five years. [Daily Mail]

You can read more and see the video of this incident at the link.  According to this Insurance Research Center link on average 156 people are caught a day trying to commit insurance fraud in South Korea.  For those driving in South Korea it appears installing a dashcam is a good idea.

Make of this what you will:

Young troops suffer from erectile dysfunction at nearly three times the rate of civilians their own age, according to a new study out of the University of Southern California.

In a study published recently in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, 33 percent of 367 active-duty men surveyed reported symptoms of erectile dysfunction, or ED, while 8.4 percent reported probable sexual dysfunction, or SD — issues unrelated to erections that include low sex drive and ejaculation problems.

All the troops surveyed were age 40 and below. [Army Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of the mixed messages that the US military continues to send to servicemembers:

A handful of Jack Daniel’s-branded gathering places draw whiskey drinkers and other patrons in sports arenas, stadiums like Wrigley Field, even in Dubai International Airport.

You might not expect to see such an establishment inside the gates of an Army base. As of Friday, you’d be wrong.

The Jack Daniels’ Lounge opens that afternoon at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, taking the place of the Lanyard, a bar last renovated during the Reagan administration. [Army Times]

You can read more at the link, but this promotion of Jack Daniel’s goes against the message the Army has been sending to the troops to stop the promotion of alcohol that is a key factor in DUIs and sexual assaults that has caused so much criticism of the military. The 7th Air Force in Korea has launched an anti-alcohol jihad where personnel are banned from drinking their first 30-days in country while other military units have banned alcohol in the barracks. On deployment personnel cannot drink at all. While all these anti-alcohol efforts are going on the DoD is busy
promoting a beer company during the Super Bowl and now a whiskey company in the middle of Ft. Sill.